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exodus, book of
32:25ff.) may be aptly compared to this incident). An adumbration
of the plague of the firstborn on the paschal night,
from which Israel’s firstborn are saved through a blood rite,
has been seen here.
The most salient problem of this complex section is the
repetition in 6:2–7:13 of the main outline of 3:1–6:1 – the revelation
to Moses of God’s plan to save Israel; Moses’ mission
to Pharaoh and Israel; his objection that he is clumsy of speech
and the consequent appointment of Aaron as his spokesman;
and Pharaoh’s rebuff of the brothers. The medieval French
exegete Joseph Bekhor Shor suggests that at least part of the
second narrative recapitulates the first (at 6:13, 29); in fact, it
appears that these are variant narrations of Moses’ call and
commissioning. The contribution of the second narrative is its
stress on God’s involvement in Israel’s liberation: Pharaoh’s rebuff
challenges God’s reputation, and He must teach the arrogant
Egyptian who He is. Thus the major motive of the plague
story is introduced (cf. 7:5 with 7:17; 8:6, 18; 9:14, 16, 29).
C. THE PLAGUES (7:14–11:10). After Pharaoh spurns the credentials
of Moses and Aaron as God’s messengers because his
magicians imitated them, the brothers are instructed to bring
on *plagues of blood, frogs, and lice. The first two are again
imitated by the magicians, but the third is beyond them, and
they confess it to be “the finger of God.” Six more plagues follow,
with Pharaoh oscillating between obduracy and concession.
When, with the eighth plague (locusts) he engages in real
negotiation with Moses, it is Moses’ turn to be difficult. He
so exasperates the king that after the ninth plague (darkness)
he is expelled from the palace with a warning never to show
his face there again. Moses stalks out in a rage after warning
Pharaoh of the final plague of the firstborn.
The plague narrative is constructed on a 3.3.3. (plus 1)
pattern – reflected in the tannaitic mnemonic Deẓakh ʿAdash
Beʾaḥav and expressly noted by medieval exegetes (Samuel b.
Meir, Levi b. Gershom, Abrabanel). This pattern is imposed on
heterogeneous materials whose inconsistencies have troubled
readers from earliest times (for details, see *Plagues of Egypt).
Despite this, the effect of the narrative is achieved: human arrogance
toward God is not only futile; in the end it overmasters
its subject and leads him to his destruction.
D. FIRSTBORN PLAGUE AND PASSOVER RITE (12:1–13:16). A
fortnight earlier, on the first of the spring month (later, Nisan),
God had prescribed the protective rite and sacrificial meal that
Israel was to carry out on the night of the final plague – namely,
the slaughter of the Pesaḥ (protective/pass-over (Mekh.))
lamb, the daubing of its blood on doorposts and lintels, strict
confinement indoors, and consuming of the roast flesh in
haste and readiness to leave (see *Passover).
The text moves on to link the Pesaḥ with the future
week-long festival of maẓẓot, whose onset coincides with
the Pesaḥ night (14 Nisan), and whose main feature – unleavened
bread – accompanies the Pesaḥ meal as well. The
two, evidently distinct, holy days are henceforth to be cel-
ebrated as memorials of the Exodus – their coincidence on
the same date being the basis of their combination. (Only
in 12:39 is an etiology of the Maẓẓot Festival associating it directly
with the events of the Exodus given – the inability of
the Israelites to tarry in Egypt long enough for their dough
to rise.)
Moses passes on to the people only the injunction concerning
the Pesaḥ. However, his message too has a part that
looks to the future. This time the link with the future is the
Pesaḥ rite itself: in time to come it is to be reenacted (annually)
as a memorial to the sparing of Israel’s firstborn during
the plague that struck Egypt. (The Samaritan mode of celebrating
the rite, preserving all its dramatic and apotropaic
features, appears closer to the intention of the text than the
Jewish mode, deliberately emptied of them (cf. National Geographic
Magazine, 37:1 [1920], 34–35, 44–45; Pes. 9:5; Abraham
Ibn Ezra on 12:24).
On the fateful night, the bereaved Egyptians press the
Israelites to leave. The latter had already fulfilled (ʿaśu (12:35),
pluperfect) Moses’ order to ask the Egyptians for valuables
(and thus get some return for their unrequited labor and suffering
(Sanh. 91a; Ḥezkuni on 3:21f.; B. Jacob, in: MGWJ, 32
(1924), 285ff.). (The notice (Ex. 3:20) that the valuables are
worn by children is probably an etiology of a festive practice
of Jews in the Egyptian diaspora of the later first millennium.)
Verses 37–42 of chapter 12 are notes on the departure:
the first station; the size of the host (conceived as an army:
ragli, “footmen,” ẓiv’ot YHWH, “the troops of YHWH”); the
large admixture of non-Israelites; the etiology of maẓẓot; “the
night of vigil.”
Further regulations concerning the Pesaḥ in verses 43–49
continue verses 1–20, and belong (in the light of verse 50) before
verse 29. They appear here owing to their assumption of
settled conditions and the presence of foreigners among the
celebrants. A passage enjoining the commemoration of the
Exodus with the Maẓẓot Festival (a variant of verses 15–20)
and the dedication of firstlings follows. Notable is the conception
of both as pedagogic measures – vehicles for the transmission
of God’s mighty deeds to future generations. A large
agglomeration of ritual materials of quite varied character
and provenance has thus been attracted to this point in the
narrative. The reason is clearly to link the rites and holy days
in question – doubtless pre-Israelite in origin – with their
meaning in Israel.
E. THE MIRACLE AT THE SEA (13:17–15:21). A report of God’s
providential guidance of the departing Israelites is followed by
a prose and poetic account of the miracle at the yam suf, usually
rendered “Sea of Reeds” or “Red Sea.” (On the problematic
term see Vervenne in Bibliography; location unknown;
every body of marsh and water from Lake Sirbonis in the
north, across the Isthmus of Suez, to the Gulf of Suez in the
south has been proposed.) The theme of teaching Egypt who
YHWH is reaches its culmination in God’s assertion of authority
against Pharaoh and his whole army (14:4). God’s design
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